This invention has to do with the handling of substacks of business forms which accumulate into stacks and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus of handling substacks wherein alternate substacks are rotated 90.degree. in order to develop a balanced stack.
This invention is an improvement upon Spencer and Nystrand U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,805. The above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,805 dealt with a machine for producing business forms and featured apparatus which flipped each business form or "unit set" as it issued from the machine so that when the forms are consecutively numbered, they will be developed into a stack where the lowest numbered form is at the base of the stack with its facing sheet faced down. Other apparatus in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,805 disclosure assisted in the development of "square" stacks. The output of the apparatus of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,805 a series of square stacks numbering, for example, 50 unit sets in each stack. The instant invention carries on from where the disclosure of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,805 leaves off, i.e., taking the stacks of 50, for example, (hereinafter designated "substacks") and accumulating them into larger stacks of say 200 or 250 unit sets. To this end, a novel method and apparatus is employed wherein alternate substacks in the series are rotated 90.degree. in one direction while the remaining alternate stacks are rotated 90.degree. in the other direction whereby a master stack can be accumulated having glued edges balanced on each side so as to avoid a sloping stack.